Shark in the Water
by liz.nez.mary
Summary: You are remembered for the rules you break-Douglas MacArthur. Cassie Ryan is a known rule breaker, has trouble with authority, and hates for anyone to call her by her full name. She will definitely be remembered for the rules she's broken. Derek Morgan/OC
1. Chapter 1

I pulled my brown pullover over my head, already regretting the action when the police department's door opened and cold, November wind hit me. I replaced my arms through the sleeves but refused to pull it over my head again.

"We're dealing with a desperate detective here. Three dead boys and no evidence at all, so he applies the profile to someone he already suspected. It's easy to get tunnel vision that way." Gideon said softly, so as not to draw the attention of Gordinski who was working at his desk.

"One begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts; it's one of Sherlock Holmes' favorite quotes." Spencer intervened, his large brain spouting off facts.

"We need to figure out who really killed those boys before they decide to charge Morgan." Gideon replied. I furrowed my eyebrows at him. Did he really want us to re-profile the profile?

"What do you want us to do?" Prentiss asked, wanting to help all that she could. I stood up next to her, ready to do whatever I had to.

"Last victim was someone Morgan was seen with, conveniently, Morgan was already a suspect in the other two." Gideon answered the gears in all of our heads working overtime.

"Someone set him up?" I asked, glancing at Spencer. I rolled my hands into the hood of my pullover, not really liking where this case was going.

"We should consider Morgan a victim. Prentiss, you, Reid and Cassie talk to his family, learn about him, especially around the time of the first murder." Gideon decided, nodding his head. I noticed Dennison sneak his way over toward the team, in an incredibly way.

"Do we have the address?" Prentiss asked, grabbing her black coat. I swept the bangs out of my eyes and looked around the police station.

"I could take you." Dennison offered, eagerly. I lifted an eyebrow at him, and then narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

"You know, it's rude to eavesdrop." I said, quite bluntly. Emily stepped on my converse covered toe, warning me to not be so rude myself.

"Oh, no that's ok." Emily said, trying to cover for me.

"No, actually that's not a bad idea." Gideon put out there. I thought about it, if Dennison was out of the way, all they had to do was focus on Gordinski.

"Right," Emily said, staring at Gideon as if he were going senile. "Okie doke, lead the way detective." Emily waved her hand in front of her. Dennison walked ahead of us as Spencer placed his hand in mine. Dennison lead us to a black SUV out front and we all climbed in. It was a tense and awkward silence the entire ten minutes it took to get to Derek's mother's house. We entered the apartment building and knocked on the door. A red headed woman answered, her two daughters behind her.

"Hi, I'm Cassie, I work with Derek?" My statement came out as more of a question, but Fran Morgan smiled anyways.

"Yes, Derek's talked about you." I smiled back and hid the blush well, something I had taught myself to do years ago. "Please come in." Fran held the door open for all of us to enter the apartment and I walked in first, waiting in the entry for someone to show me where to go.

"Um, we actually came to talk to you about Derek, so we can help him." I said as Fran closed the door. She smiled at me again and showed me to the table. I sat down and Emily stood at the other side while Spencer stayed close to me.

"You know what, some of his old stuff is actually in his closet, Sarah, if you could go and get it down for them. Would any of you like some cake? We have more than enough." I politely declined as did Prentiss, but Spencer gladly accepted the offer. Sarah came back a minute later with a box labeled 'Derek's Room' while Desiree went to get Spencer a slice of cake. Spencer took the box from her and thanked her, opening the box. I stood up next to him to see all of the football trophies inside.

Desiree entered the dining room, with cake in hand, and handed it to Spencer. "Is uh, Derek alright?" she asked us.

"He wouldn't let us go down there." Fran said, her voice shaking slightly for her son. She was sitting at the head of the table watching all of us, like a mother would, not like a crazy UNSUB would. Emily lifted her hands, as if in surrender.

"He's fine, our boss is with him." I continued to go through Derek's old stuff as Spencer ate his cake quietly.

"Did he tell you Gordinski has been harassing him since he was a kid?" Sarah asked, frustrated at the whole situation. Dennison huffed behind me, and I turned and glared at him. He backed off slightly and I turned back to the box on the table.

"Why's that?" Spencer asked, curious.

"You'd have to ask that bastard." Sarah answered.

"Oh, Sarah," Fran chastised her oldest daughter.

"It's true, mom." Desiree insisted softly, her hands on her mother's shoulders.

"Sure it is," Dennison said, rubbing his mouth.

"What are you even doing in my mother's house?" Sarah asked completely pissed off.

"They asked me," Dennison figuratively hide behind us. I shook my head at him.

"Not really," Spencer said to the plate holding the cake. I turned to him.

"I don't really remember inviting him, do you?" I muttered to him, stealing his fork to take a bite out of the cake. It was really good cake, and I wondered if Derek had made it.

_What are you doing, Cass? You're supposed to be helping him, remember? Wonder about trivial things later,_ the little voice in my head that I had named Reason whispered harshly. I mentally rolled my eyes at it and continued to go through Derek's things.

"I don't understand how they could think he did this." Fran injected, trying to sooth the tense atmosphere.

"We think someone may be trying to make it look like Derek hurt those kids." I bit my lip and braced myself for the outcry of the Morgan clan.

"And the police believe it?" Sarah inquired, attitude all over the place.

"Just following the evidence." Dennison muttered loud enough for all of us to hear. I turned to him and saw him sitting by the fireplace.

"You know, you could go wait by the car." I smiled my tone completely fake. Spencer bumped my shoulder, and I turned back around, half-heartedly smiling at him.

"But he's an FBI agent," Desiree replied, trying to get some sense into Dennison's head.

"Actually, law enforcement officials are just as probable statistically to commit a crime as anyone else. You look at the cross-section of society, there's a general population and a small fraction of this percentage…" Spencer started out and I blinked at him. Fran looked generally interested in what Spencer had to say while Sarah and Desiree tried to hide their smiles.

"He's not actually saying he believes Derek is involved in this." Emily said, pointing at Spencer and sitting down in the chair.

"Oh, no, no, yeah, no, not at all, I'm merely speaking theoretically." Spencer nodded his head.

"You're Doctor Reid, right?" Desiree asked, amused. Spencer hummed at her, curious as to what she was going to say.

"Derek talks about you, too." Sarah said as Fran glanced at Desiree, trying to hide her smile.

"He does?" Spencer asked, interested. I tried to hide my amusement but couldn't.

"Any way," Prentiss said, trying to get things back on point. "So, someone may be trying to make it look like this was Derek." Fran looked away from Emily for a moment.

"But, Derek loves kids." Both of Derek's sisters nodded in affirmation. "Every time he's here, he visits the youth center."

"Youth center?" I questioned, not really knowing what it was.

"The Upward Youth Center," Fran answered.

"Does that have some sort of significance for him?" Spencer asked, trying to clear things up.

"What are you saying there's something in it for him?" Sarah questioned, getting defensive towards Spencer. "Other than giving back to the poor kids of your neighborhood?"

"Sarah," Fran tried to calm down her daughter.

"Sarah," Emily said calmly. "We're friends of your brother's. We're here trying to help, and when we ask questions, it isn't to denigrate or demean anything he's done. We just have to know everything, so we can figure out where to look next." The Morgan clan nodded their heads in understanding. "Is there some special significance to the Youth Center?"

"The Youth Center saved his life," Fran replied, nodding her head to get the point across.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, needing clarification.

"My husband, their father," Fran started, looking at me, "Was killed when he tried to stop a robbery. Derek was with him, he was ten. A year or so later, he started getting into trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Emily asked.

"He started running around with older kids. They would give him money to run errands for them, not drugs," Fran said quickly, seeing the expression on Emily's face. "Derek would never disgrace his father's memory."

"But, they were gangbangers." Sarah said. I sat down next to Prentiss; my pullover had ended up over the chair a long time ago. "So, people started looking at Derek as if he was one of them."

"One night, he and a friend were attacked by some boys who were from another gang. Big fight and one of the boy's head split open."

"And that was the first time Gordinski arrested him." Sarah interrupted. "Now, he wasn't a detective yet, just a street cop, but from that night on, no matter what happened in the neighborhood, he'd pick Derek up for it."

"Probably because he was involved," Dennison interrupted. My teeth were on edge as I turned to him once again.

"I thought I told you to go wait by the car?" I asked, my sickly sweet tone slipping into an icy lake. Emily kicked my shin from underneath the table. I turned to her quickly, and she shook her head at me. I huffed and leaned further into the chair.

"Stan's never arrested anyone who didn't need arresting." Dennison walked up to the table.

"Seriously, the car is downstairs. Go heat it up, or something." I muttered, Emily being the only one to hear me, only shook her head at me.

"He did, with Derek." Sarah replied.

"Until Carl Buford stepped in," Fran said.

"Carl Buford?" Spencer asked.

"He runs the Youth Center." Dennison answered.

"He took Derek under his wing, um, mentored him, became like a surrogate father. He taught him football and that changed Derek's life. He got a scholarship to college with it, he got his degree…"

"Where is Carl Buford now?" Emily asked.

"He still runs the Youth Center." Dennison answered for Fran.

"I'd like to talk to him; do you think you could take me over there?" Emily asked.

"What, just you?" Spencer asked, glancing at me.

"Well, someone needs to help Cassie go through Derek's stuff." Emily answered, pulling her jacket on.

"Good idea, yeah, keep going through the stuff with Cassie." Spencer repeated, none too thrilled to do just that.

"What's wrong with going through the stuff with Cassie?" I asked, playfully. Spencer just smiled back, almost nervously.

**A.N. Hey Readers! I've decided to upload this finally, so I hope you enjoyed it. Please Review, or not, whatever. So, it's going to go from Profiler, Profiled all the way up through the seasons of Criminal Minds. My Muse has returned so depending on how long she stays for, my updates will definitely be sporadic, but i will try to update at least weekly. Anyway, the story gets so much better through the chapters, as this is just an introductory of the character Cassie.  
Lots of Love From Your Lovely Writer,  
NEZ**


	2. Chapter 2

I glanced down at him briefly. His head was in his hands, his elbows were against his knees, his shoulders held a tension in them that only the stress of the job usually caused, and I knew he knew I was here. I sighed and dropped down next to him, laying my head on his shoulder. And we sat there, for what seemed like forever, but really must've been about a half an hour.

"You're not going to go away, are you?" Derek's voice was muffled by his hands and I chuckled briefly.

"No," I answered, shaking my head slightly. His head lifted from his hands and my cold hand clasped his slightly sweaty one.

"How did you even find me?" He asked, emotion still thick in his voice, but I ignored it, because I knew that's what he wanted me to do.

"Honestly?" I asked rhetorically as he laid his head on top of mine. "I got lost and ended up here, where I found you. Funnily ironic, don't you think?" I looked up at him, a small smile on my face. He studied it; as if he were looking for something but apparently didn't find it because his forehead dropped down to meet mine.

"Funny," He answered, his chocolate brown eyes closed and his warm breath against my face instantly had the butterflies in my stomach fluttering wildly. We sat there for an extended period of time before my pocket in the pullover vibrated; signaling my time with Derek was over.

"I have to go." I said, making myself pull away, when all I really wanted to do was stay and take up all the warmth he had to offer. The hand that wasn't still holding mine reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and lingered there, before dropping back into his lap. "Call me when you get back?" I asked him, standing up from the bench, the wind instantly assaulted me and made me shiver, but our hands were still joined.

"Sure," He answered, his voice still rough. I nodded and bent down to kiss his cheek and came back up, releasing his hand and instantly stuffing it in the pocket with my other hand. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away to get back to the hotel, grab my Go-Bag and get a ride with JJ to the airport.

"Hullo?" I asked into the receiver, still half asleep.

"_Cassie? Are you asleep?"_ I grunted, rolling over in bed.

"Not anymore." I threw the covers off me and slid into my warm Uggs. The faux fur inside kept my feet warm as I shuffled across the floor.

"_Do you still want to come over?"_ I nodded my head, forgetting he couldn't see me. Derek chuckled, and I wiped the sleep out of my eyes.

"Nuh," I answered, and Derek continued to chuckle. "Derek, it's like two in the morning, did you really just get in?" I grabbed my pullover from the back of the kitchen chair and the beach bag next to it.

"_Yeah,"_ now that I was fully awake, I could hear just how tired he really was.

"And you couldn't sleep, so you decided to call me?" I teased, bracing myself for the cold as I took the phone away from my ear for less than a second to pull on my pullover. I opened the front door and was instantly frozen by the glacial morning air.

"_Something like that,"_ I gasped as I ran to my white Audi. _"Are you ok?"_

"Fine," I squeaked, turning my car on and waited for the heat to turn all the way up. Derek chuckled as I started driving towards his house.

"_So, how's the BAU?"_ I snorted disbelievingly. _"What?"_ I shook my head as I sat at a red light. I leaned my head against the headrest and smiled.

"You're asking me about work? You really must be in need of Cassie time." Derek chuckled again before it all went silent. "You didn't wake me up to fall asleep on me did you?" I asked the smirk clear through my voice.

"_No,"_ Derek's voice betrayed him, though, because it sounded like he was about to fall asleep at any minute.

"Good, 'cause I'm here." I put my car in park and hung up the phone when I saw Derek open his front door. I grabbed the beach bag and nearly sprinted up to Derek's front walk. Goose bumps erupted along the skin of my legs as I had forgotten that I was wearing sleep shorts; I could see my breath come out in a mist.

"Are you crazy?" Derek asked, eyeing my bare legs.

"Getting there," I bounced on the spot, trying to keep my blood circulating. Derek took my wrist and pulled me inside. He took me to the couch and sat me down, draping the blanket from the back of the couch around my shivering body. He then situated himself under my legs and rubbed them, trying to get the feeling back into them.

"What's in the bag?" I looked at him confused then looked down, and instantly brightened up.

"Oh, ok, so, when Sarah or George are stressing over work, or whatever, it's like a tradition for me to bring over everything that's in my pantry so we can veg out and watch Audrey Hepburn movies, until we can say the lines almost perfectly. Now, I've never had a guy friend who was straight before, and since I didn't know if this would make you feel better or not, I just brought everything anyways." Derek threw his head back and laughed soundly before turning back to me, his brilliant smile still across his face.

"We can do whatever you want to do, Baby Doll." My eyes brightened at his words and I pulled out Sabrina from the beach bag. I unraveled my legs from the blanket and hopped up, popping the DVD into the DVD player. I enveloped the blanket around me before sitting back down next to Derek, who wrapped his arm around me, pulling me in closer to him. We didn't even get through the previews before Derek's breathing was deep and even. The main menu finally came up and I shook my head, standing up.

"The movie's over already?" Derek asked, as I turned off the T.V then offered my hand to help him up.

"Yep, and I couldn't leave you on the couch while I took your bed without a guilty conscience. C'mon." I flexed my hand out to him and he grabbed it, heaving himself off the couch. I trailed behind him, our hands still connected, to his bedroom. I quickly assessed the room, before pulling the comforter back and slipping my boots off, getting into Derek's bed. The room was masculine. Even in the dark, I could see the walls were a cream color and his bedspread a dark red. I crawled to the other side of the bed and settled there, tugging the blankets over my body. Derek climbed on the bed next to me and lied down on his side, facing me.

"I should've told someone." Derek finally said, softly, his voice not above a whisper. I opened my eyes, vaguely wondering when I had closed them, and studied him. He was glaring at something over my shoulder, a thousand miles away. "I'm so angry and frustrated." I fingered his collarbone, and his eyes found mine, vulnerability shining through.

"At who?" I asked, just as softly.

"At the boys before me, for not saying anything. At myself. I should've said something, anything." I traced my way down his arm until I reached his hand. I interlaced our fingers and brought both our hands up between us.

"You were scared. It's understandable." I examined our connected hands. "Fear is an emotion," Our eyes met, his chocolate brown ones watching me. "You can't help how you feel, Derek, you can only learn from it." He just watched me for several beats before he smiled half-heartedly.

"How'd you get so smart?" He teased, rubbing circles on the back of my hand.

"You start picking it up when you hang around smart people all the time. It's almost like a disease." I mused playfully, glad that he was almost back to his normal self. I closed my eyes, a small smile still on my face.

"Good night." I said, already slipping into sleep.

"Night," He answered.

**Hello Readers! It's Nezzie again, and I hope you are all enjoying the story so far. As you probably already know (or not), I do not own Criminal Minds. Anyway, review or not, I'm not going to force your hand(s) to do so. Haha. I may or may not update soon, it just depends on how I feel. So, until next time my lovely readers….**

**Nez**


	3. Chapter 3

"Baby Doll, come dance with me, please." I glanced at Derek and shook my head.

"I don't dance, Morgan." I replied for the hundredth time.

"Don't, or can't." He teased, and I rolled my eyes, taking a sip of my drink.

"Pick one." I answered. Derek bent down close to my ear, his scratchy cheek rubbing against mine.

"Please?" He asked again. I very nearly shivered as his hot breath fanned across my neck.

"Um, excuse me?" We both turned to look at the women who were standing behind us. "Would you like to dance with us?" I snickered as Derek turned to me.

"Go, have fun. Leave me be." Derek smiled and kissed my temple before leaving with the group of women to the dance floor. Penny sat next to me after Derek left, having just got back from the bar with her drink.

"Oooh, he's dancing, huh?" Penny asked me, turning her chair towards the dance floor to watch Derek dancing.

"Yeah, I finally got him to leave me alone." We both started laughing, as I told her what she had missed. Haley and Hotch came to our table, having just gotten there, and after I had inquired about Jack, Haley and I switched from subject to subject of conversation. Emily Prentiss said her hello's and offered to go buy drinks for everyone. I declined and excused myself, wanting to go looking for my friends.

I found George sitting with Spencer and a few other people, all talking Star Trek.

"Hey girly, have you seen Sarah any where?" I asked, bending down by her ear, my hair getting dangerously close to her fruity drink. She shrugged, engrossed in what Spencer was talking about. I smirked at her, making a mental note to hook the two up later. I straightened up and swiveled around, coming nose to nose with my best friend. I took a step back at the mischievous look in her eye.

"I'm bored!" She exclaimed, grabbing my forearm and dragging me to the bar.

"Not a chance in hell, Caribbean." I told her, following her only because of the vise-like grip on my arm. "I haven't done them since high school." I tried to discourage her but she just threw a grin my way.

"It's like riding a bike!" She yelled over the music, holding up two fingers to the bartender. I stared at her as the bartender started filling shot glasses.

"I'm not going to ride you, if that's what your insinuating." I told her seriously. She just beamed at me and handed me the salt shaker.

"Get your mind out of the gutter C-Monkey and help me get numbers tonight." She replied, picking up a lime wedge for her to stick in her mouth.

"Why don't you just dance on the pole later, I'm sure that will give you numbers." I said sarcastically and immediately regretted it at the look Sarah gave me. "Don't do that." I pointed at her, trying to get my point across. She just smirked at me and hopped up on the bar, already getting people's attention as she stuck the lime in between her teeth.

I licked her collarbone and shook the salt on her wet skin. I licked the salt off her, downed the shot, and took the lime wedge from her mouth, sucking hard, trying to get the aftertaste of the tequila out of my mouth. Loud cheers from the people around us made us change our positions, me on the bar and Sarah getting the next shot ready, taking the lime from me and handing me a new one.

"Please tell me this is going to be PG-13?" I asked into her ear. Sarah smiled slyly, answering my question as she eyed the audience of guys around us. She set the shot glass between my legs, and looked at me expectantly. I sighed and placed the lime in my mouth. She licked my cleavage, salted it, and then licked the salt off, taking the shot glass into her mouth and downing the tequila, not once touching it with her hands since she had set it down. She gently set it back down on the bar and hurriedly took the lime from my mouth, wiggling her eyebrows at me as the guys around us went wild. She slinked off into the crowd of men offering to buy her a drink, while I paid for the shots and left to go back to the table.

The only person who was at the table, however, was Emily Prentiss. Emily had just joined the team a few months ago, and I didn't really know her all too well, but we got alone alright and she wasn't all too offended by my lack of filter between my brain and mouth like most people were. I smiled as I sat down next to her. I grabbed my drink, still trying to get rid of the tequila after taste.

"Where'd Penny go?" I asked her over the loud music.

"Bathroom," Emily answered. I nodded my head, setting my drink down. I looked over at the dance floor, and had a hard time suppressing a smile at the image of a dancing Derek. "So, how long have you and Morgan been together for?" My eyes widened at the question and I studied the older woman.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, come on, Cassie. The way he is always protective of you, the way he teases you, the way he-"

"Emily, he does that with everyone. He's a giant flirt, that's just how he is." I interrupted. I turned my head away from her to watch Derek. He lifted his head up to see me and smiled, and I smirked back.

"Yes, but I doubt he looks at Gideon like he looks at you." I whipped my head back around to stare at Emily who was also watching Derek. I shook my head at the older woman and stared down at my drink. I had noticed that our flirting had gotten a bit more… aggressive, but Derek Morgan was one of my friends, one of my closest friends. Did he feel more than just friendship? Did I? I shook my head again, realizing how horrible I was at the whole inner-monologue thing.

_Because you already know the answer, you're just stalling._ Reason put in, and I shook my head for the third time, blaming my near insanity on the tequila, cursing Sarah Cruz for dragging me, quite literally, to the bar. I laughed internally at myself, knowing I was nowhere near as light weight as I let people believe. I took a drink and laid my head on my propped up hand, then tensed as I suddenly felt warm breath on the back of my neck.

"You'd better stop thinking so hard, you'll end up blowing the whole place up." Derek's voice chuckled in my ear as I turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. I laughed sarcastically at him.

"Funny," I said dryly, tucking my blonde hair behind my ear. "I can't believe you just stereotyped, I would've thought you'd be better than that." I remarked with a smirk. He picked up his jacket and cocked his head to the side, studying me with a smile.

"You ready to go, Blondie?" I snickered, and shook my head.

"One Way or Another," I slid off my chair as Derek handed me my jacket. I shrugged it on quickly, lifting my straight hair out of the back. He grabbed my hand and led me through the crowd to the door. "Where are we going?" I asked over the music. All he did was send a smirk over his shoulder at me. We got outside bar, the cold air relaxing after being in the stuffy bar all night.

"Please tell me you didn't bring Death on Wheels." I stopped in the middle of the parking lot, and Derek stopped too, amused.

"Is Cassie Ryan afraid of my means of transportation?" Derek asked, and I rolled my eyes.

"One, Cassie Ryan isn't afraid of anything, two, that _thing_ isn't a means of transportation; it's a death trap." By the time I was finished correcting him, he was shaking with silent laughter. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, but one of these days," I left the end of my sentence hanging in the air, and Derek continued his bout of silent laughter.

"C'mere my little Fready Cat." His arm came around my shoulders, hugging me to his side.

"I'm not a fready cat." I grumbled lamely, bringing my arm around his waist. He chuckled in response and continued to lead me to his black car. He opened the passenger side door for me and I happily slid into the car, chilled.

"So, where are we going?" I asked again, as Derek started the car. He laughed and glanced at me, driving out of the lot.

"The BAU has a case." I shuddered and Derek looked over at me, amused.

"So, you looked like you were having fun tonight. Is your wallet still in your back pocket?" I teased as he smirked back at me, glancing at me for a moment before returning his eyes to the road.

"I'm sure you had just as much fun considering the amount of salt on your shirt." I immediately looked down and started wiping the whit flakes off my black top.

"My best friend is an attention whore." He laughed, glancing at me again then taking one of his hands off the wheel, interlocking our hands together, letting them rest against my thigh. I stared at our hands, my mind going into overdrive, overanalyzing the gesture. I bit my lip and stared out the window, lightly squeezing his hand. I could feel him give me glances every couple of minutes. I smiled over at him when I caught him looking.

"What?" Derek just shook his head, taking the exit. It took almost twenty minutes for us to reach the BAU and Derek parked in the empty garage. He pulled my hand over to his side of the car and fingered my bracelets.

"You got a new one." I watched him observe every charm on the new bracelet, until he had circled it entirely.

"Yeah, I need another bracelet, though. I have too many charms." I laughed and he nodded, smiling, letting go of my hand. I stepped out of the car, bringing my jacket closer to myself. We walked to the elevator together, his arm around my shoulders to keep me warm. I yawned, feeling ready for bed.

"How are you tired?" I shrugged through another yawn, the elevator music not helping. "So, how come you don't dance?" I groaned, the elevator doors sliding open.

"I thought I answered your question at the bar." I mused as Derek opened the glass doors for the both of us.

"Seriously, why don't you dance?" He repeated, disregarding my previous answer to the question, "Pigs don't fly, yet," and reached for his coffee mug on his desk.

"Hmm, because national disasters happen when I dance." He scoffed and I insisted that it was true as I led the way to the stairs. "That and I just don't like to. I'd rather watch." I sent over my shoulder along with a brazen smile. I could barely hear the "I bet you do," he mumbled behind me. I entered the conference room and sat between Penny and Emily, swiveling in the soft office chair.

"Ya know, this just figures," Derek started after he had finished pouring his cup of coffee. "Right when I get my groove thang going, BAM, back at the BAU." I snickered at him as Spencer explained why it was only in Derek's head.

"Besides," Emily said. "Does it really take you that long to get your "groove thang" going again?"

"It does when he's asleep." Gideon answered, walking into the conference room, taking off his jacket.

"Where were you tonight?" Hotch asked him, as Gideon took a seat closest to the screen. I reached across the table and snatched Derek's coffee mug from his hand. I took a sip and wrinkled my nose at the taste, handing it back to him. He smiled at my reaction and I was temporarily stunned. I blinked at him as Reason started sending out warning bells in my head.

'Cassie, you're in a room full of Profilers. They're going to notice you making Goo-Goo eyes at Derek Morgan, fire you, and he'll be creeped out. Stop what you're doing right now before you completely ruin our lives.' I had long since diverted my attention from Derek to the table, contemplating Reason's words.

'We're both the same person.' I thought.

'And your point is-'

'Why do you keep speaking in second person?'

'Same reason you do.'

"Huh," I mused, worrying my bottom lip.

"Thoughts, Cassie?" I looked up from the open case file in front of me to encounter seven pairs of eyes, all staring at me.

"Nope, I'm good." I replied, glancing around nervously.

"Are you even paying attention?" Hotch asked, his frown deep set in his forehead.

"Of course I am." I lied, slightly indignant all the same. Everyone looked doubtful so I sighed. "What if the UNSUBs are looking for recognition? Their murder is going to be all over the web, news, everywhere. You don't call the police unless you absolutely have to, psychologically, or you want someone there as fast as possible to show what you did." JJ clicked her remote to show a bloodstained page ripped out a book.

"Revelations," Hotch said, studying the highlighted section.

"Isn't that like eternal damnation to rip pages out of the Bible?" I asked, turning to Spencer. He shrugged and I shrugged with him. I silently thanked any and all kinds of higher powers of the Universe that I could multitask really well. I left with everyone else, going to my desk to pick up my Go-Bag and change my shirt.

**Hello again! This is obviously the third Chapter of Shark in the Water and I hope you guys enjoyed it. I don't own Criminal Minds nor is any of this mine, although I admit that I wish this was mine. Anyway, I think I'm going to update again either today or later this week.**

**Nez**


	4. Chapter 4

I dropped my head onto the open file on the table, groaning as pain shot through my head. I had been searching through the Georgia police files with JJ since we had been here, and so far it was a waste of time.

"JJ, we really need to narrow this down. At this point, we'll be here forever." I groused, not bothering to lift my head.

"Narrow it down to what?" JJ asked, tossing a file into the discard pile. I lifted my head and frowned at the empty frappuccino cup.

"Ok, well, let's think. The UNSUBs didn't just go straight to murder, without passing Go or collecting $200." I mused, flipping through another file before dumping it into the ever-growing pile.

"What do you mean?" JJ asked and I stopped hunting through the boxes of unsolved cases.

"Well, how did the UNSUBs get into the house without alerting the victims or neighbors?"

"You think they did home invasions." JJ stated and I nodded, pushing the stack of unsolved murder cases aside.

"Would make sense." JJ nodded and picked up a box full of files for home invasions. I groaned and she smiled.

"I promise it's not as much as you think it is." I waved her comment away and grabbed the pile of paperwork she offered me. I skimmed through them, none of them really catching my eye, until about three quarters of the way through.

"JJ, listen to this. So, this guy is walking his dog and spots this prowler jumping over the fence, dressed in dark clothing. Guy calls the cops; the prowler's gone by the time they get there." We both stare at each other before jumping up out of our seats and rushing over to Hotch. I repeated what I had told JJ about the file.

"Is there a name and address for the witness?" Hotch asked. I glanced down at the case file in my hand.

"Tobias Hankel. He lives about an hour from here." I answered. Hotch nodded.

"It's a long shot, but he might be able to give us a description. Why don't you three go out there and see if he remembers something." I nodded, happy to get out of the police station and take a field trip. Spencer, JJ and I piled into the dark SUV, with JJ driving. I sat in the back, on the edge of my seat as we all talked.

"Seriously, JJ, this is farther than an hour." I said as I hopped out of the back of the SUV, trying to stretch my aching muscles.

"You're the one who made the assumption it was an hour away." I shrugged my shoulders, hearing my back pop. We all walked up the steps to Tobias Hankel's house, and JJ knocked on the door.

The door opened, revealing a scruffy man who was shy and timid around us.

"Hi, Mr. Hankel?" JJ asked, trying to make sure we had the right house.

"Yeah?" He asked back, and I felt suspicion bubble up inside of me. He barely opened the door wide enough for us to see him completely, but it wasn't just that. Something was up about Tobias Hankel, I just didn't know what.

"Mr. Hankel, FBI, I'm Agent Jareau, this is Agent Reid and Agent Ryan." Spencer showed his badge to Hankel then put it inside his pocket.

"FBI?" Hankel questioned.

"May we come in?" Spencer asked urgently, almost embarrassed. Hankel looked behind the door then stuck his nose outside.

"My father wouldn't like that." I raised my eyebrow.

"You're father? You're like, thirty." Spencer remarked, and I crossed my arms over my chest, figuratively smelling something fishy.

"At what age should one start disrespecting the wishes of their parents?" Hankel asked rhetorically and I schooled myself not to roll my eyes.

"Um, you witnessed something a few months ago," JJ stated, trying to get the conversation back on track. "It might be very helpful to us."

"I did?" Hankel asked, concerned.

"You saw someone go over a wall into a yard. You called the police?" I said, trying to trigger any type of recollection. His eyes slid over to me and I forced myself not to make any facial expression except that of interest. I could definitely tell something was going on.

"Me?" He questioned.

"You didn't?" I asked, trying to dig deeper into his answers.

"Sorry," He answered, not sounding so at all.

"You were walking your dog?" I tried again. He shook his head quickly and I felt my brow pull down on its own.

"I don't have a dog." I narrowed my eyes at the man, as JJ asked if there was another Tobias Hankel that lived in the house.

"No, just me and my father, Charles."

"Oh, well, sorry to bother you sir." JJ said as Hankel quickly shut the door.

"Ok, that was weird, and I grew up in LA." I said as I took to the steps, and rounded the side of the house.

"Cassie, where are you going?" JJ asked, and I turned over my shoulder, lifting an eyebrow at the two.

"What, neither one of you found that suspicious at all? Why call the cops if you're just going to lie about it later?" I asked, still walking around the house.

"To gauge response time." Spencer answered quickly, his mind going into over drive.

"Excuse me?" I asked stopping and turning to face the two blondes.

"If you are going to call the police first, you need to know how fast they are going to get there, so that you know how much time you have." I blinked at Spencer before we both raced to the closest window. Hankel was pacing around his computers, mumbling to himself. I stared at the screens as they all showed different people doing their own routines, not even noticing that they were being watched via webcam. Hankel ran out of the room as soon as he spotted us and we followed him, JJ not far behind.

"JJ, he went through the barn." I said, pulling out my gun.

"JJ, call Hotch, tell him Tobias Hankel is the UNSUB." Spencer told her, getting out his own gun.

"Reid, we're in the middle of nowhere, we have no cell reception." JJ told him bluntly.

"Right, well, he knows we're here, he'll come looking for us. In the mean time, we need to find Hankel." I told the both of them. Reid nodded, pulling me after him, explaining to JJ that we'll meet at the back of the barn. I followed him, watching as dead corn swayed and crunched as Hankel ran through the field.

"JJ, he's in the field!" Spencer yelled as quietly as he could. I tried to keep up with him, but he kept weaving, and finally I just ended up all by myself, in the middle of a corn field.

"Spencer?" I asked, hearing crunching around me. I took a deep breath, moving in deeper to the heart of the field. "Ok, Cassie, nothing to worry about." I told myself, looking around at all the dead, yellowing stalks. "It's not as if you're in the middle of nowhere, in a corn field with a killer on a psychotic break who knows this field better than you. No reason to be paranoid. No reason at all." I shook my head and tried to listen around me. I heard rustling to my right and I turned suddenly feeling like prey.

"Spencer?" I asked again, hoping to God that it was him. "Spencer this isn't funny." I called.

"Please, don't hurt her. She didn't do anything." I heard and I turned my ear towards Tobias Hankel's voice, tying to get a feel of where he was.

"She's the devil." I heard another voice and it wasn't Rafael or Tobias.

"Please," Tobias begged and I took a step back.

"Do it." The other voice growled and all I heard were shots. I gasped, and turned my head in the direction that I thought was the barn.

"JJ!" I called out, turning in circles, completely lost. I was suddenly face to face with Tobias Hankel and he hit me, knocking me to the ground and stunning me. I looked up at Tobias. He wasn't the shy man who opened the door for me, JJ and Spencer. He was bitter and angry, a completely different personality. Tobias had my gun in his hand, pointed at me. Tobias was having debate with himself and I used his distraction to scoot away from him. I hopped up and started running, but was grabbed by my ankle and I came down hard, a sharp pain shooting through my wrist. I turned my body to fight off Tobias when everything just all of a sudden went black.

I felt myself being picked up off the ground and my fight-or-flight reflexes kicked in so I started to do both. I struggled against whoever was holding me, twisting and turning my body to get away from him. I started kicking and hitting whoever held me and I opened my eyes, not really being able to see well, but enough to get a good hit in.

"Cass, Cassie, it's me. Stop. Relax Baby Doll; I'm not going to hurt you. Cassie, you need to stop struggling, I'm going to end up dropping you." I wrapped my arms around Derek's neck, incredibly happy that he had found me and was taking me away. I rested my aching head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, easily falling to sleep.

The first thing I noticed wasn't that I had woken up, like on most mornings, but that I had a splitting headache. I groaned as it only got worse and started pounding.

"Hey Baby," I groaned again as Derek's voice reverberated through my head, making it throb more. I tried to focus my sight on one Derek but there were still four of them. "Hey," His voice was softer now and he sat next to me, bringing me closer to him. He handed me some pills and I happily took them without complaint as I usually would. "Baby, are you ok?" I blinked and four Derek's turned into two.

"I think so." I frowned, reaching up to scratch my forehead when I hit a bump the size of California and hissed in pain. Derek pushed my limp, clumped hair back off my forehead as the pain subsided. "What happened?" I asked, bringing my eyes up to meet his.

"I was hoping you could tell me." I blinked, settling my eyes on the wood floor.

"Spencer told JJ that Hankel was in the field, but I don't think she heard him, because…" I broke off, suddenly worried. "Where's JJ, is she alright?"

"She's fine, Baby Doll. She's in the other room with everyone else." I nodded my head as Derek continued to run his fingers through my dirty hair.

"Next thing I know, he's gone and I'm all by myself in a corn field. No, I'm not." I bite my lip, rubbing the inside of my wrist where I know is my star tattoo.

"What do you mean, Sweetheart?" I lift my eyes up to his and bite my lip harder. Derek's other hand comes up to smooth my bottom lip from the tight grip of my teeth.

"Is Spencer ok?" I asked timidly, wanting to know that he was before I continued.

"Hankel has him." My eyes widened and I started hyperventilating, knowing what Hankel was going to do to me, and that he now had Spencer. "Baby, Baby look at me. I'm going to find him, but I need to know what happened, first." I nodded my head, picking at the frayed pieces of the couch we were sitting on.

"He was going to kill me." I could feel my eyes start to tear up, at the thought of what Hankel was doing to Spencer right at that moment. "And now he has Spencer and it's my entire fault." I knew my voice had gotten thin and high pitched and Derek's arms encircled my waist, bringing me onto his lap while I cried onto his shoulder.

"Baby, it wasn't your fault." He kept repeating in my matted hair as I hiccupped and sniffed, trying to get a hold of myself. "Penelope is in the other room, you wanna see her?" He wiped the tear stains off my cheeks with his thumbs and I lifted my eyes to his. I nodded weakly, still thinking of what Spencer was going through and guilt began to twist my stomach into knots. He smiled softly and kissed my forehead, careful of my bump. He helped me stand as the room kind of spun a little bit, and then led me to the computer room that I had seen earlier through the window. Penelope swiveled in the chair and smiled at me.

"Hey Sunshine," She patted the chair next to her and I sat down, relieved mostly because my head was still aching. I brought my knees to my chest and laid my head down on them, watching Penny make codes on one of her computers. About an hour later, Derek came back into the computer room and insisted that I walk around outside with him. He took my hand that wasn't covered in gauze and led me out the front door. We hadn't walked for very long when I tripped over a cellar door.

"Hey guys, I think we found something!" Derek yelled out to the others in the house, as I sat on the ground, nursing my sore toe. He bent down in front of me and made sure that I was ok, before insisting that I stayed on the ground while Hotch followed him into the cellar. He came back up, his brow furrowed.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my hurt toe forgotten.

"We found Tobias' father." Derek helped me up and together, I hobbled back to my chair by Penelope.

**Hello Readers! Is anyone else suffering from Daylight Savings Time Tiredness? I've just spent the entire day in bed, sleeping off the hour I just gained. Anyway, I don't own Criminal Minds. I'm also thinking you readers might get lucky and get another chapter from me today, but no promises.**

**Nez**


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